Re: A question about wording in messages

On Wed, Sep 14, 2022 at 7:45 AM Kyotaro Horiguchi
<horikyota(dot)ntt(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>
> I saw the following message recently modified.
>
> > This controls the maximum distance we can read ahead in the WAL to prefetch referenced data blocks.
>
> Maybe the "we" means "PostgreSQL program and you" but I see it
> somewhat out of place.
>
> I found other three uses of "we" in backend.
>
> > client sent proto_version=%d but we only support protocol %d or lower
> > client sent proto_version=%d but we only support protocol %d or higher

How about just replacing 'we' with 'server'?

> > System allows %d, we need at least %d.
>

Another possibility could be: "System allows %d, but at least %d are required."

> This is a little different from the first one. In the three above,
> "we" suggests "The developers and maybe the PostgreSQL program".
>
> Is it the right word choice as error messages? I'm not confident on
> the precise wording, but I think something like the following are
> appropriate here.
>
> > This controls the maximum distance to read ahead in the WAL to prefetch referenced data blocks.
> > client sent proto_version=%d but only protocols %d or lower are supported
> > client sent proto_version=%d but only protocols %d or higher are supported
> > System allows %d, at least %d needed.
>

This could be another way to rewrite. Let us see if others have an
opinion on this.

--
With Regards,
Amit Kapila.